Money is the Root of All Good

In the sprawling Galactic Empire, the modest two‑story headquarters of Universal Relief buzzes with frantic urgency. The agency, a profit‑seeking counterpart to the old Red Cross, is tasked with disaster response across countless worlds, and its staff is now scrambling to understand a sudden market collapse on the distant planet Lyrane. At the center of the crisis sits Roald Gibbons, a newly appointed president whose indifferent demeanor masks a deeper disconnect from the complex economies he oversees.

Lyrane is a social experiment where citizens earn “luxury pay” not for labor but for good deeds and thoughtful actions, turning virtue into a tradable commodity. This unconventional system has birthed a peculiar stock market: individuals become corporate entities, and their moral conduct fuels dividends for investors. As the crash threatens to destabilize an entire way of life, the officials at Universal Relief must untangle the tangled web of ethics, economics, and possible external sabotage before the repercussions spread throughout the galaxy.